My experience in a London NHS hospital was an eye-opener to me, not just because of all the negative publicity we read about the health service in this country, but also because it was so much better than the one I’d stayed in six months previously.

She should have that conversation with my wife!

After being told by her doctor's surgery that they can't see her before Tuesday, and with a similar response from the clinic they then suggested she contact, she has now dipped into her own supply of antibiotics to self treat her own infection.

You can imagine the amount of whining I get about how rubbish she feels the health service is over here. Where she's from they have pharmacies open 24/7 with people able to prescribe basic medication on tap.

Makes for good satire though..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0yhl6qMBHs

And I tell you we have learned from past mistakes.Just as you cannot spend your way out of recession, you cannot, in a global economy, simply spend your way through recovery either.(Gordon Brown, Labour Party Annual Conference, 29 September 1997)

So, housing affordability is better than it has ever been, but no-one can take advantage of this because they can't afford the houses. I see.cybernoid - 7th August 2010

My recent experience with the NHS has been awful. I had a really bad flu, phoned the surgery for a Doctor and was told to book an appointment with the minor ailments nurse!
I told the idiot receptionist that I had a temperature of 103 and was not going to go out.
She sulkily asked for my phone number and said that she would get a Doctor to call me.
The Doctor did call, he saw no need for a home call and prescribed antibiotcs over the phone, In fairness, he did get the pharmacy to deliver them. As the fever subsided, I was left with a herpes ulcer on my eyeball and totally deaf in one ear.
Eventually, I got down to the surgery, the Doctor said that my eyeball ulcer was dangerous and that I needed to go to hospital. He rang the hospital up and they made an appointment for 2 days later!
Now, I am getting better and arguably my treatment was sufficient. But even the NHS web site says that over 65's should see a Doctor if they get flu in order to begin any necessary anti-viral treatment (herpes is a virus and anti-biotics have no effect)
The eye specialist told me to keep a tube of the eye medicine at home, and any time that I get a cold sore, I should use the medicine just in case.
Now the specialist was from India, and I wonder if he has any idea of just how difficult it will be for me to get a tube of this ointment from my local surgery. Bear in mind that I will need to keep an in-date tube for the rest of my life.

My recent experience with the NHS has been awful. I had a really bad flu, phoned the surgery for a Doctor and was told to book an appointment with the minor ailments nurse!I told the idiot receptionist that I had a temperature of 103 and was not going to go out.She sulkily asked for my phone number and said that she would get a Doctor to call me.The Doctor did call, he saw no need for a home call and prescribed antibiotcs over the phone, In fairness, he did get the pharmacy to deliver them. As the fever subsided, I was left with a herpes ulcer on my eyeball and totally deaf in one ear.Eventually, I got down to the surgery, the Doctor said that my eyeball ulcer was dangerous and that I needed to go to hospital. He rang the hospital up and they made an appointment for 2 days later!Now, I am getting better and arguably my treatment was sufficient. But even the NHS web site says that over 65's should see a Doctor if they get flu in order to begin any necessary anti-viral treatment (herpes is a virus and anti-biotics have no effect)The eye specialist told me to keep a tube of the eye medicine at home, and any time that I get a cold sore, I should use the medicine just in case.Now the specialist was from India, and I wonder if he has any idea of just how difficult it will be for me to get a tube of this ointment from my local surgery. Bear in mind that I will need to keep an in-date tube for the rest of my life.

My experience of the NHS is the same. At 8.5 months pregnant, I have seen a midwife only once at the booking appointment and the dr I was supposed to see was on long term sick with different junior locums covering for him. Yet his name still appeared on all the letters as if he was still working. Absolute rubbish.

Well that's me convinced, I'll give up my lower taxed job and superior lifestyle and come back to Britain. I'll be able to buy shoebox to live in and give all my cash to the government. There is no way that the NHS provides better care but you might catch MRSA quicker.

2012 predictions:

1. China will have record growth on the back of a contracting EU.2. Sterling will finish the year at $3 even after QE mk25 and 200trillion pounds of printing.3. UK house prices will rise 25% as unemployment grows.

Well that's me convinced, I'll give up my lower taxed job and superior lifestyle and come back to Britain. I'll be able to buy shoebox to live in and give all my cash to the government. There is no way that the NHS provides better care but you might catch MRSA quicker.

The Daily Mail is targeted at women so I find it quite Marxist in a lot of ways.

Everyone has different experiences of the NHS. I've had some rubbish, some great.

My brother had to have a leg amputated. It look place in the Chelsea and Westminster. Just fantastic service, clean, great staff, beautiful work, all went really well.

My dad had an operation for bowel cancer at the Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham. His treatment was even better than my brother's at C and W. One evening he was feeling particularly ill and called me. I told him to press the button for the nurse, and to put the phone down so I could call the hospital. He forgot and dropped the phone. I heard the whole conversation as soon as the nurse came, which was very quickly. Amazing, spoke to him in a really caring way, took his temperature, just wonderful. I live and work in London and could only get up there at weekends but was never worried about his treatment. He had a male nurse assigned to him who was outstanding.

Contrast all that with the treatment my late brother had at St Georges in London. Horrific. Fat, lazy and stupid nurses who let the bell ring for God knows how long. If you complained you were treated with contempt. Still makes me angry thinking about the place.

As I say, I have just had an awful experience, but I have known the NHS to be superb. To a certain extent it is down to the local ethos of the professionals, and I guess it was always like this, even before the NHS.
The answer is to complain so that health workers who may not realise that their performance is below par know all about it.

The most ridiculous thing about that article is the constant remarking that the NHS is free (in both the article and the comments)

Are people so stupid that they don't understand how the NHS is funded?

I'm currently looking into health insurance in the US. It seems very complicated. I haven't been to a doctor since about 2001, and haven't ever had any serious illness, so I'm looking more toward emergency cover only, but the options seem endless.